'Drive' Director To Produce 'Maniac Cop' Prequel (Yes, Really)

Maniac Cop—the b-movie, undead cop/slasher movie franchise so ridiculous that it managed to use the same tagline twice (“You Have The Right To Remain Silent…Forever!”)—has a devoted fanbase, thanks mostly to the b-movie gods behind it: all three films are directed by William Lustig (Maniac, Vigilante) and written by Larry Cohen (It’s Alive!, God Told Me To). And, apparently, a prominent member of that fanbase is Drive and Bronson director Nicholas Winding Refn, who has signed on to produce a prequel to the 1988 original film.

As oddball as this may seem, it does make a perverse sort of sense, as Refn’s films do contain a large amount of genre/b-movie references in their DNA, and there is a bit of overlap in the Venn Diagram of genre filmmaking between Lustig and Refn. So, perhaps Refn producing (and possibly directing?) a prequel to a series about an evil, supernatural police officer who kills people might actually work.

William Lustig is currently at work on the project, noting that it “isn’t 100% signed off on but it’s pretty close”; additionally, Lustig stated that the film is “going to be more a prequel than anything else, I am really excited to come back to this world especially since Nick is going to be a part of it…I had an idea that would work so we’re going to do it.”

So—the Drive aesthetic applied to a film in which a voodoo-enhanced undead serial killer cop loose in New York City? Where do we sign up?